Criminal – Discovery – Sanction

Where a District Court judge imposed a $5,000 sanction on the commonwealth for violating Mass. R. Crim. P. 14(a)(3), as appearing in 442 Mass. 1518 (2004), by failing to inquire of police as to the existence of discoverable material and then making a false representation on a "certificate of compliance" regarding the satisfaction of its pretrial discovery obligations, this was an abuse of the judge’s discretion and must therefore be vacated.